Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) is the Nuttiest Freshman in Congress—Again

—By Tim Murphy | Wed Jan. 23, 2013 3:01 AM PST

On Monday of last week, Rep. Steve Stockman (R-Texas) announced that if President Barack Obama attempted to enact new gun violence prevention measures through executive order, he would have no choice but to file articles of impeachment. By Tuesday, he was comparing Obama to Saddam Hussein for using children as props at a speech introducing a gun control package. By Wednesday, he had stepped back from the precipice, asserting that "impeachment is not something to be taken lightly." After all, where did anyone get that idea?

This is the way it has always been with Steve Stockman: Light a fire; add some potassium nitrate; then stand back and gawk at the crater.

The Texas congressman, who is three weeks into his second term after a 16-year hiatus from the House, is almost certainly the only member of Congress to have been caught with 30 mg of valium hidden in a cellophane wrapper in his underwear. He's defended militia groups; accused an attorney general of "premeditated murder"; appeared on a Holocaust-denying radio program; waged a one-man war against Alfred Kinsey; compared his constituents—favorably—to Branch Davidians; and traveled to Denmark to protest climate change while wearing a red blindfold. The man who bested his 2012 opponent by 44 points isn't the most ballyhooed of incoming lawmakers. He's just the nuttiest.

Stockman's first congressional victory, a 1994 upset of 42-year incumbent Jack Brooks, may have been the closest his state ever came to electing a gun. In the preceding years, Stockman had experienced a personal purgatory—the aforementioned Wisconsin drug bust, which he blamed on his girlfriend; a brief period as a "studerino" (his words) surrounded by "hot-looking babes"; myriad bounced checks; a falling out with his brother; and a year living in a Forth Worth park with another homeless man he compared to Lennie from Of Mice and Man. Then Stockman discovered Christ and Ronald Reagan in East Texas.

5. This jackass is my rep...

It scares me to think about the political direction the folks around me have taken. Less than ten years ago, I was represented by a "Blue Dog" Democrat; now, thanks to gerrymandering, generational displacement, and "Obama derangement syndrome, 71% of the voters in my district cast ballots for this far-right nut last November.